BRAINSTORM POSTERS. 4 rolES.

Brainstorm posters are creativity tools – four posters each featuring a different strategy to push you or your team out of habitual thought patterns and allow to look at what you're doing in a fresh way. There are four posters in this collection:

the Observer – understanding the problem,

the Inventor – creating new ideas,

the Investigator – choosing the best idea,

the Implementer – implementing solutions.

The key to this process is being able to look at a problem from different perspectives. This can be challenging, and you may find the process a bit alien. Don't be afraid!

“It’s always been done like this” is not a good reason for an Observer – he likes questioning existing practices. He walks around with his eyes open, noticing problems and seeing opportunities. Which challenge should we accept? What is the cause of the problem? Why should solving it excite US? And he constantly asks himself and others why we think the way we think – have we validated the problem, i.e. talked to or observed those affected by the problem every day? If this has not been done, he stubbornly demands that this be completed before the next step is taken.

“Think before you speak” is criticism's motto; “Speak before you think”, creation's.” –E. M. Forste

Grandma would’ve said about the Inventor that this child is quick on the uptake. He always sees opportunities and has a hundred solutions. Or does he have even more of them? Some of these seem better and others worse, but this doesn’t seem to bother him – he just keeps coming up with new ones. When faced with criticism, he asks people not to bother him with this – it’s something for the Investigator. A confident type.

“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.” –John Cage

An Investigator is pragmatic – he can see the potential of every idea. He does not assess the raw idea, but thinks about what could come from it. He has two conflicting characteristics – he knows how to consider the limits set by the real world, but sincerely believes that these limits should be shifted. This is why he chooses ideas that don’t let people carry on as always, but force them to make an effort. And it’s wonderful what teams manage to achieve when this happens!

“There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.” –Buckminster Fuller

The Implementer is probably the Observer’s cousin – he also likes to constantly ask himself and others why we think what we think. Have we validated the idea before investing time and money in it, i.e. have we studied the opinion and behaviour of the people affected by the problem every day who should be the ones using the solution? When ideas are implemented, he always sees opportunities for testing them on a small scale, thereby reducing the risk of failure. This is why he discards some of the ideas selected by the Investigator.